Already eliminated from the post -season’s consideration, Brooklyn Nets and visiting Toronto Raptors will continue to take a look in the future as the team meets each other Sunday afternoon.
Nets (25-52) enters the last week of the regular season with a nine percent chance of winning the NBA draft. Brooklyn also has three second first rounds outside the lottery from previous trading with Milwauke Bucks, Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks.
Brooklyn ends his fifth 50-loss season since moving from New Jersey after the 2011-12 season.
Nets is 16-42 after starting a 9-10 start with a list containing veterans Dorian Finy-Smith and Dennis Schroder. They were eventually traded to the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors respectively.
Nets acquired D’Angelo Russell in the Finney-Smith store but on Thursday they played the guard for 12 minutes in a 105-90 home loss to Minnesota Timberwolves. Russell did not score when he played on a sore right ankle and his availability for Sunday remains undecided.
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On Thursday, Nets used its 39th different starting lineup when Maxwell Lewis made his first NBA start. Lewis was also acquired with Russell from the Lakers and was the starting lineup with Nic Claxton, whose 18 points equalized the center’s fourth highest sum this season.
Claxton’s production came on one night when younger players like Dariq Whitehead (17 points) and Tosan Evbuomwan (13 points) contributed.
Cameron Johnson (Back) did not play Thursday either and has missed four of the last eight matches. Without Johnson, Trendon Watford made his first start this season and combined with Lewis to get 21 points, as Nets shot 42.7 percent from the floor and held below 100 points for the 24th time.
Toronto (28-50) comes in with a 7.5 percent chance of winning the lottery and returning to Brooklyn after rolling to a wire-to-thread 116-86 route against Nets on March 26.
Raptors, who has his own choice in the first round, hopes for a massive turn next season, especially after acquiring Brandon Ingram and signing the veteran to a three -year, $ 120 million contract after his arrival from New Orlean’s Pelicans.
“There are many reasons that go into it (but) We hope we can continue to develop our players, that they will jump next season and they will really use this summer properly,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic told reporters. “With the addition of Brandon Ingram in our team, we are really hopeful that next year will be the beginning of something really special for us.”
Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett were in the starting lineup for their last meeting with Nets but neither played in Friday’s home loss 117-105 to Detroit Pistons. Barnes sat out with a hand injury after he shot 27 out of 81 (33.3 percent) during his six previous matches, while Barrett rested for the fourth time in eight matches.
Torontos Orlando Robinson dominated the previous meeting in Brooklyn of a total of 23 and 12 returns when he started instead of Jakob Poeltl
Raptors’ Ja’kobe Walter, who started a run of six consecutive starts the last meeting, got 22 points Friday, which marked the eighth time in their last nine matches reached the beginner double numbers.
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